UKIP leadership runner-up Lisa Duffy has yet to decide if she will stand again following the shock resignation of party leader Diane James after just 18 days in office.

Cllr Duffy, from Ramsey, said she would make a decision next once potential candiadtes start to emerge..

“I won’t put my name forward unless I can to do it properly,” said Cllr Duffy, leader of the UKIP group on Huntingdonshire District Council.

“There is a lot of choice and I will see who else comes forward before I decide.”

Cllr Duffy said she had not chance to discuss the possibility of standing again with her family.

She said the return of former leader Nigel Farage as interim leader while a new election took place meant there was a safe pair of hands in charge.

Cllr Duffy, who is popular with grassroots party members, was runner up to Ms James in the leadership election last month held following Mr Farage’s decision to stand down.

She said she hadn’t spoken to Ms James since congratulating her on her leadership win and did not know the full reasons for her decision to stand down.

“I think it was a lot harder than she thought it was going to be,” Cllr Duffy said. “I think it was a brave decision to take early on, rather than waiting until later.”

Cllr Duffy said she understood Ms James’ husband was ill and that she had been shaken by being abused and spat at in the street.

But she said Ms James had apparently complained of a lack of support at the top level in UKIP, but had also “failed to engage” with the party.

Two UKIP favourites who were unable to stand at the last leadership contest are emerging as front-runners.

They are Stephen Woolfe, who missed the deadline for his nomination papers to go in is tipped as favourite by bookies, followed by Suzanne Evans, who could not stand because of a suspension which has now been lifted.